Manuscript of the 1741 famine that struck Mexico City and the central region of New Spain. Several bound, hand-written notebooks attest to the efforts of Mexico City officials in their recollection of maize from the intra-lake region and central valleys. Entries consist of official paperwork between Joseph Francisco Aguirre Espinosa, the farmers of the greater Chalco region and the administrators of Mexico City's corn granary, the "alhondiga" or "posito."

During the period in question, the colony of New Spain experienced extremely difficult years following the disastrous matlazáhuatl epidemic of 1736, which decimated the indigenous population of Mexico City and the surrounding valleys. Charles Gibson's "The Aztecs under Spanish Rule" presents a valuable chronology of the agricultural conditions at the time and suggests that from 1737 to 1741 a series of droughts and poor harvests affected maize production throughout the central valleys. The year 1741 was also a time of political transition as evidenced by the arrival of the new viceroy Pedro de Castro Figueroa y Salazar (1741-1742) in August, just before the famine reached critical levels. Figueroa y Salazar took the place of the archbishop-viceroy Juan Antonio Vizarron y Eguiarreta (1734-1740), after an entire year of rule by the Real Audiencia.

385 leaves : paper; 315 mm x 220 mm., bound to 330 mm x 225 mm.

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